Only Human
by Raven with a Writing Desk
Summary: Calliope Kane always had a strong sense of justice. So when 100 teenage prisoners are sent to earth nearly a century after the nuclear apocalypse, she volunteers to accompany them in order to secure a better chance for survival. She didn't expect the plans of a would be leader to jeopardize that. An outsider among her own people, she must find her own way in this strange new world.
1. Chapter 1

"What are you doing here?" All eyes in the corridor turned to look at the man who had spoken. Councillor Marcus Kane was glaring at a tall female guard who was glaring back. The woman stood tall and refused to back down under the man's glower.

With a salute, she answered, "I am boarding the drop ship, sir!"

The councillor looked murderous as he grabbed the guard and pulled her to the side of the hallway. Each person averted his eyes out of respect for the man. "I will not allow you to throw away your life, Cal."

Calliope Kane glared at her father and jerked her arm out of his grasp. "Like how the Council elected to throw away the lives of one hundred teenagers," she sneered. "I approached Commander Shumway and Chancellor Jaha with the offer and they agreed to allow me to accompany the hundred to the ground. I will be able to help protect them from any dangers on the ground."

"No!" Councillor Kane barked with a downward slash of his hand. "We cannot afford to lose a guard. We will need you in the coming days."

Cal scoffed. "You can think of it as extra air for those on the Ark, sir." She then turned away from her father and stared ahead at the airlock door.

Marcus stared in shock as his daughter turned away from him. He had always known that she had a strong sense of justice, but never imagined that it would cause such enmity between them. He was reminded of her mother as he look in the stubborn set of her jaw and the fire that shone through her green eyes. "I can't lose you too, Callie," he tried again, his voice barely above a whisper.

"You should have thought about that before you floated my fiance," she hissed as she rounded on him. Marcus was forced to step back to avoid the irate female. "You chose this! You know I could never let these kids be sent to the ground alone. They're defenseless!"

Just then, guards entered the corridor, leading the one hundred teenagers to the drop ship. Cal lowered her voice to a harsh whisper and stepped closer to Marcus. "I volunteered so that these kids actually have a fighting chance, if the radiation doesn't kill them. It's naive to think that nothing could have survived, be it animal or human."

"I am your father," Marcus tried futilely, "and I-"

He was cut off by Cal shoving him into the wall. "You stopped being my father the day you stood by and watched as Peter and Jake Griffith were floated for wanting what was right for the people of the Ark. You have no say in my life anymore." Cal turned to go, but paused to throw one last barb. "I'm just glad mom isn't alive to see any of this." With that, she turned on her heel and marched onto the ship, taking her place with the hundred.

Marcus watched in agony as the last of the kids were loaded onto the ship and the airlock was sealed. Abigail Griffith, whose own daughter was on board, stood beside him with tear-filled eyes. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he said, "I'm sorry, Abby."

Abigail looked into his eyes for a moment before saying, "You got your extra air." She then walked away.

With a heavy heart, Marcus followed her to the control center where they would be monitoring the drop ship. The room held screens with information on each of the hundred thanks to wristbands that Abigail designed to read and transmit vital signs. His eyes were instantly drawn to the picture of his daughter. Her pulse was high, but he was assured that was most likely due to being nervous. Watching the descent of the drop ship was torturous. At least he thought it was until they lost all communication. Now their only source of information came from the wristbands that each of the hundred wore.


	2. Chapter 2

The sound of distant voices reached her ears when Calliope awoke. Memories of the rough descent were fresh in her mind. Assuming that she had been knocked out during landing, she lifted her eyes to view the area around her. All of the seats were empty and the door was opened.

Fresh air tickled Cal's nose, and she breathed in deeply. There was no smell of stale air. Smells that were unfamiliar to her beckoned for her leave her seat and venture into the unknown. Heeding the call, she unstrapped herself and stood. Everything was different. There was no machine hum, no marching feet of guards patrolling the halls, and no cries of grieving families who had watched their loved ones get floated. In that moment, there was only peace.

Then as quickly as the calm enveloped her, it fled. Angry voices came from outside the ship. Cal placed her hand on her holster only to find that her weapon was missing. "No!" she growled as she looked to see if it had fallen out in the landing. The gun was nowhere in sight. The voices outside continued to grow louder. Abandoning the missing weapon, she rushed through the doorway and into the unknown.

Immediately, she focused on the cause of the commotion. John Murphy and Wells Jaha were in the midst of a confrontation. She rushed forward to stop the two but was cut off by another male. This one happened to be Finn Collins, the boy responsible for an unauthorized space walk and the waste of precious air. He immediately placed himself between the two boys and stopped any more unnecessary violence.

"The minion's awake!"

Cal turned to see who had spoken only to find several males with whom she was unfamiliar. All eyes focused on her where she stood at the bottom of the ramp.There was only one word to describe the overpowering aura that radiated off almost every person in the clearing: hatred.

"What's a guard doing on the ground?" a young male asked as he sneered at her.

Ready to explain her presence, Cal stepped toward the group of teens only to be shoved to the ground by John Murphy. Immediately, she reacted by catching the back of his knee with her foot and knocking him down with her. "I'm here to protect you," she snapped as she stood to her feet once again.

The crowd parted as a tall male entered the circle that had formed around her. Cal knew in a moment that he was never supposed to be on the drop ship. Bellamy Blake had been a cadet with her before he was dismissed for keeping his sister's existence a secret. He was forced to leave the guard and work as a janitor. By all rights, he was supposed to be on the Ark, but instead he was standing before her in a guard's uniform. "We don't need or want the protection of one of the Council's minions," he said as he scowled at her.

"What are you doing here, Blake?" she demanded. Her entire body was on edge from the moment he stepped forward. There was no good reason that he would be on the ship. No one outside of the guard and Council knew of the plan to send the hundred to the ground. If he were here, there was a leak in the guard.

Bellamy Blake seemed to be assessing Cal as he let his eyes rove up and down her body. It was almost as if he were sizing up a target. Crossing his arms over his chest, he narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. "I came for my sister," he stated with no emotion in his voice. His eyes, however, darted to his sister who was standing in the crowd.

"That's not what I meant," Cal growled as she stalked toward his. Stopping only a hair's breadth apart, she stared into his defiant eyes. "No civilians were to know of the plan to send the prisoners to earth. How did you hear about it, and how did you get you hands on a guard uniform?"

Cal's lip curled when Bellamy answered. "I guess being a janitor comes in handy. You never know what you might hear." Bellamy shoved the brunette away from him and matched her scowl with one of his own. "You're not welcome here, Calliope. We don't answer to you or the Ark. Everything we do from now on is what we want!"

The crowd cheered at his declaration and threw their arms up in agreement. Bellamy grinned at the people around him, but the smile faded as he turned his gaze back to her. He jerked his head to the right and motioned for her to follow him.

Cal followed him from a distance as he led the way through the crowd and into the forest beyond the clearing. She ignored the shoves that she received from several of the teenagers as she followed the man. Once they were out of earshot, Bellamy turned on Cal. "Why in the world would you come down here, Cal?" His tone had softened some and Cal shook her head to rid herself of memories from the past.

"I couldn't stand by and let them send a hundred teenagers to their deaths," she said clearly. "This is wrong. I can't just turn a blind eye. I had to do something."

"So you would just throw away your life for a bunch of people who would just as well see you dead?"

Cal shook her head and stepped away from the man. "I don't expect you to understand, Bell."

"No, I understand better than you think I do," Bellamy argued and pointed back toward the dropship. "Everything you said to them just now was an excuse. You jumped on that ship to get away from your father. How much do you hate him that you would risk dying down here to get away from him?"

"He killed Peter!" Cal screamed as she slammed her fist into the tree beside her. "He watched as they flipped the switch, and he did nothing."

Bellamy stared at the woman in front of him as she visibly vibrated with anger. Her fists clenched at her side as she tried to control her raging emotions. He waited a moment before asking, "Why was Pete floated?"

A tear slipped down her cheek, and Calliope roughly brushed it away. When she spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper. "He ran some tests for Jake Griffith. They discovered some faults in the Ark's system and were going to go public. They were floated for treason." Cal looked up at Bellamy. He reached toward her but stopped when a commotion was heard from camp once again. Neither spoke a word as they hurried in that direction.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again!  
I'm sorry for the long wait for this chapter. I hit a writer's block and couldn't figure out how I wanted to progress the story.  
My original plot had to be tweaked a little so I had to write and rewrite this chapter multiple times.  
I'm still not happy with it completely but I don't want to leave this story unfinished.  
I can't promise regular updates, but I will try to make sure there is less time separating them.  
Anyway, like I said, my original plot has changed slightly do I am contemplating another change.**

 **Now that that is over with, on to the story.  
Please leave a review with any critiques or anything you might like to see in the story.**

 **T** he commotion in camp was nothing more than a few of the teenagers fighting over the drop ship's parachutes in order to make shelters. Bellamy quickly stepped forward to stop the argument as Calliope made her way over to Clarke who was gearing up to travel to Mount Weather.

"You need another set of hands?" Cal asked the young blonde as she began to make her way out of camp.

Clarke glanced over her shoulder to the small group following her. "I think we've got this, Cal. You will probably be of more use here." Clarke paused to nod her head towards the Blake siblings who were now arguing if Octavia would accompany the group to Mount Weather. "I don't trust Bellamy. Could you keep an eye on him?"

"Glad I'm not the only one," Cal said with a quick nod. "I'll probably see if I can get a group together to go scavenge for some food. You guys will be gone for awhile and food will make everyone less irritable."

"Agreed. Just make sure you stay safe."

Cal nodded with a smile. "You do the same."

A chill went up Cal's spine as she watched the Mount Weather group depart from camp. She turned to find two of the teens glaring at her. One of them was Bellamy's minion, John Murphy; while the other one was a kid named Kyle Andreas, youngest murderer on the Ark. Cal knew all about him.

At the age of eight years old, Andreas had murdered both of his parents by suffocating them in their sleep. Cal heard the story from the arresting guard. Apparently, the kid had been abused by his parents from a young age. It continued for years until something snapped. The bodies were found on a random quarters check two days later. Andreas had been quiet during the arrest and the investigation. Cal's superior had claimed that the boy was the perfect prisoner. He was always calm and respectful to the guard. He never caused problems during his imprisonment, but now, Cal could almost feel the animosity radiating off the teenager. With a shake of her head, Cal turned her back on the two boys and went to search for others to join her in scavenging for food.

"Hey, Murphy!"

Murphy turned away from the guard he was currently watching to see Bellamy advancing toward him. "What's up?" he asked.

Bellamy came to a stop beside him and gestured to Cal as she was talking to a teenage girl. "We need her wrist band. Our best bet of insuring that the Ark doesn't come down here is getting hers, Wells's, and Clarke's. If three council members' kids are assumed dead, the council won't want to come down. After we get those three, we worry about everyone else."

Murphy nodded to the older man. With a smirk he said, "You worry about the princess; I'll get the prince and the knight."

The two gave each other a nod, and Murphy moved closed to Calliope. "I hear you're looking for some volunteers to go scavenging," he said as he came up behind the woman.

"Since when do you pretend to be helpful," Cal scoffed as she turned toward him. Murphy reminded her of a weasel. He only looked out for himself. Why would he volunteer to be useful?

Murphy plastered a smile to his face and answered, "Since it's in my best interest. If we find food, I know where it comes from and I can go back at any time."

"I'll come, too."

Cal and Murphy turned to see the newcomer approaching them. It was none other than Kyle Andreas. "Great!" Murphy exclaimed with forced enthusiasm as he clapped his hands together. "Let's get going."

Cal felt uneasiness settle over her as she looked at the boys in front of her. There could be no coincidence that they had both approached her when they knew she would be out of camp. "Fine," she almost growled as she turned to the girl she had recruited into joining her. "Let's do this."

The four set off into the forest in the opposite direction that Clarke and the Mount Weather group had taken. Every ten feet or so, Cal would snap a branch off a tree and lay it down pointing back in the direction they had come.

"What are you doing?" Murphy asked as he eyed the limbs on the ground.

Kelly, Cal's recruit, was the one to answer. "She's marking our path. We don't have a map so we have to mark our path to make sure we get back to camp." Kelly motioned to the woods around them. "Do you want to get lost out here away from the group?"

"Guess not," Murphy muttered as he eyed the girl. She might end up being a complication to his plan. "So, what did you do to get sent down to this dump?" he asked as he continued to follow Cal farther into the forest.

Kelly's eyes darkened and she glared at their path. "I killed the man who tried to attack me," she stated with no emotion. "I was up for review in about five months. I had a good case for self defense. Was probably going to get released, but instead, I got sent to this trash heap." With a shake of her head, she dismissed the conversation by saying, "It doesn't matter now. We're stuck here, and there's nothing we can do about it."

Murphy glanced to from the younger female to the older one leading the way. He knew he'd have to play his cards right if he wanted to get that wrist band.

The group walked for about two hours until they found a bush with dark purple berries. "Let's get this back to camp. One of the kids from Farm Station might be able to tell us if they're safe to eat. Do you all want to continue to search just in case these are bad?"

"Let's head back," Kelly offered as she put some of the berries in a bag. The others nodded their agreement and finished gathering the ripened berries. After finishing, the small group began to retrace their steps, but thirty minutes later, Kelly called for them to stop.

"Are you all right?" Cal asked as she helped the girl to sit down.

Kelly opened her mouth to speak only to slam it shut again as her eyes went wide. Leaning to the opposite side, she then proceeded to empty the contents of her stomach into a nearby bush.

"I think it's the berries," she groaned as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She turned back to face Cal as she let out a shaky laugh. "Guess I should have listened to you and waited to see if the berries were safe to eat."

"You'll be fine," Cal assured the girl as she rubbed her back comfortingly. "We just need to get the berries out of your system." Cal paused to take a glance around. She focused on Murchy and Andreas as she said, "See if you can find water nearby. Preferably water that has been running over rocks, nothing stagnant. We need to dilute the berries in her stomach and keep her hydrated in case she continues to throw up."

The boys each contemplated her words for a moment before Andreas nodded silently. He motioned for Murphy to follow him as he turned toward the thinnest part of the forest around them. Murphy cast one last glare over his shoulder before silently following.

With a shielded glance, Cal mad sure the boys left before directing Kelly to lean back against a tree and rest.

"Do you hear that?" Kelly asked as a slow smile spread across her tired face.

Cal listened closely to the sounds of nature around them. She smiled at the sound of rustling leaves and a distant bird calling out in sweet yet silvery tones. "It's amazing," she answered as she continued to study the lush forest around her. The tranquility of the moment was interrupted, however when the sound of footsteps over dried leaves reached her ear. She did not have time to react as Kelly called for her to watch out at the same time as a heavy object collided with the back of her head. Darkness enveloped her world as the all sound and feeling faded from her senses.


	4. Chapter 4

A dark figured watched silently from his place in a large oak tree as four strangers traipsed through the forest before him. The group was comprised of two males and two females. One of the females appeared to be several years older than the three other people in the small group and was currently trying to help the younger female who has become ill.

The two males left the women and wandered further into the woods. This gave the dark figure the opportunity to creep closer to the women, so as to hear their conversation. The elder was trying to care for the other as she fretted over the younger woman. He hid himself once more as he caught sight of one of the males creeping up on the women. With mild curiosity, he continued to watch as the male picked up a large stone and hit the woman over the head with it. He then turned to the younger female and growled, "You say a single word about this to anyone and you'll find yourself in a very similar position."

John Murphy, who had been the one to attack Calliope, stared at the unconscious guard on the ground. He squatted quickly beside her, causing Kelly to jerk away from him in fear. The movement brought a smile to his lips. Reaching forward and grabbing Calliope's wrist to examined her wristband, John studied the seams where the pieces met. With a nod, he withdrew a flat piece of metal from his jacket and placed it one of the seams. With a loud click, the band snapped open and fell away from the female's wrist.

A branch snapped behind John, who whirled around to find Peter approaching with a large leaf filled with water. "You going to kill her?" he asked flatly as he passed the water to Kelly.

"No," John said as his grin grew even more wicked. "There's a pit over in the direction that we went earlier. We'll toss her in there. She won't last more than a few days without food or water."

"You're going to make her suffer?" Peter asked as he cocked his head to survey the other male.

John slowly rose to his feet and stared at Peter. "You got a problem with that?"

"What if she gets out for whatever reason? People can do a lot of things when they are fighting to survive. I don't think she's someone who will sit back and let death come."

"Then we make sure that she knows she's not welcome back at camp," John said as he looked at the metal piece he had used to pry the wristband was a rather sharp tip on one end. "We leave her a message that she can't miss."

Kneeling once more, John pressed the tip of the metal into the soft flesh of Calliope's forearm. There, with long, sharp lines, he carved two simple words. STAY AWAY stood out in bold, blood red letters against her pale skin.

When he was finished, John turned back to Kelly who had gone completely white as she watched the blood flow down the unconscious woman's arm. She drew in a shaky breath as she turned to look at him with wide eyes. She had barely made a sound the entire time, clearly fearing for her own life. "You've got five minutes while we dump the guard to get better. If you're not ready to go by then, you can find your own way back home."

Kelly nodded quickly and watched as John and Peter lifted the guard by her arms and legs and carried her off in the direction that they had gone earlier. "I'll come back," she promised herself as she watched the three disappear behind a group of trees. With a groan, she forced herself to her feet and began heading toward the drop ship.

As John and Peter dropped Calliope into the pit that John had found, they were completely unaware that they were being watched. The dark figure had followed them and watched as they abandoned one of their own. As the two delinquents left the pit, the unknown figure moved to the edge of the pit and peered down at the crumpled form of the woman. With an almost tired sigh, the figure turned away and disappeared once more into the now quiet forest.

 **I apologize for the shorter chapter, but I wanted to at least get something out.  
May the fourth be with you all! ;)**


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